Defendant fails polygraph test

February 21, 2013

WARREN - A man accused of molesting a 10-year-old boy agreed to take a polygraph examination and then failed to pass the test given to him Nov. 1, 2011.

Bill Evans, who owns Poly Tech Inc. in Akron, told jurors hearing the case against James M. Plevyak that the defendant was given a series of questions three times. The questions included five irrelevant questions like, ''Are you a citizen of the United States?''

Also included were four questions relevant to the sex case like, ''Did you ever engage in any sexual misconduct with (the victim)?''

Evans, an expert in the field of polygraph exams who also is an attorney, told the jury Wednesday that Plevyak clearly showed deception on all four pertinent questions.

Plevyak, 29, of Idylwild Street, Warren, remains free on $75,000 bond and faces more than 10 years behind bars if convicted on four counts of gross sexual imposition and a charge of exposing the boy to pornography he had on his cell phone.

He also is accused of exposing himself and groping the youth while bathing him at times he was baby-sitting him at the victim's home in Niles and his own home in Warren between June of 2010 and June of 2011.

The boy's mother testified Wednesday, describing a day in June of 2011 when the boy came to her as she was drying her hair in the bathroom while getting ready for work.

''He was nervous and shaky and eating a doughnut. He told me Jimmy keeps touching my wrong spot,'' the woman said, sometimes trying to hold back tears under direct examination by assistant county prosecutor Gabe Wildman.

The same day, she and her son reported the matter to Niles police, where Lt. Dan Adkins, a detective, became involved.

Adkins along with Dave Smith, a Children Services investigator, are still expected to testify in the case being heard by Judge W. Wyatt McKay.

Plevyak is already a convicted sex offender, according to a Trumbull County Sheriff's Office website. As a Tier II sex offender convicted of a pornography-related charge in the U.S. Navy, Plevyak is required to register with authorities twice a year for 25 years.